Iris Murdoch is fabulous in her own right, but this quote showed up in my inbox this morning, and I think all sorts of wonderful burning-man-bleeding-into-life-and-back-again extrapolations can be made. Or maybe it's just about bicycles? Enjoy.

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of
transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in
heart. -Iris Murdoch, writer (1919-1999)

eeeeeeeeeee I Lllove My Bike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, really all 3 of my bikes. Two are choppers. I love to ride a bike to work. I'm REALLY looking forward to chopping on the playa!!!!!!!! Come by and see 'em at RECYCLE camp.

I went crazy about 4 years ago and bought a recumbent bike....the rather affordable BikeE at about 6 bills at the time. This was before I was a burner. I did have resevations about taking a bike I loved so much to th playa.

This baby is the shit on the playa. big soft cushy seat that is like an easy chair with pedals, the backrest is mesh, I mounted a backpack to it so it carries A LOT of shit, The backpack was one of those nylon "cooler" bags so I can actually put ice in it and carry cold frappacinos. Wheels are not immensley fat like crusiers but not way skinny either.

The best part is the open playa. Last year my buddy brought his too (same model) and he had a speedometer on it...we hit almost 38 miles an hour (during the day) when we really stood on it! Getting from 11 o clock to 3 o clock is a breeze.

It also rocks at center camp cause none of the other bikes look anything like it. Easy to find. Although I always lock it up, even if somebody wants to steal it, without practice they are really hard to ride. Not just anybody can jump on it and pedal away.

This year I am thinking of mounting an umbrella to the seat for those slow esplande wanderings when the wind is not too high.

The price of course is a usually spend 50 bucks when I get home to have the bike guy open it up and regrease shit.

God listen to me? it is like I want to hump his bike or something. I never have humped on it...I suppose you could if the guy was riding with the girl on his lap....gotta call the woman....

Ask for Vic (he is the only one there so that is easy) He is THE man when it comes to all forms of recumbents in california.

Also most standard bike shops carry some recumbents - wheel world in Culver City used to have a bunch of the BikeE's like mine...like I said in the $600 range which is about as cheap as they come. They don't have them displayed anymore but could probably order or something

but if you really want a trike or something fancier, Vic is the man. Way cool, burner friendly and he won't try to upsell you on something if it is not right for you